The Question
by Philyra912
Summary: A series of five drabbles in the strictest sense of the term, meaning EXACTLY 100 words. On the eve of the Final Battle, everyone is asking the same question.
1. Ron and Hermione's Story: The Dove

**Title:** The Question

**Rating:** T, for dark themes, general sadness, and what I shall term "implied mature situations"

**Pairing:** Not centered on any one ship, although several are discussed. (P.S. Implications of a homosexual relationship. If that squicks you out . . . no flames please. Just deal with it or move on. Thanks so much.)

**Genre:** Drama

**Period:** Post-HBP

**Summary:** A series of five drabbles (in the strictest sense of the term, meaning EXACTLY 100 words). On the eve of the Final Battle, everyone is asking the same question.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter, and thank god I don't! I seem to make the poor dears suffer far more than their share.

**A/N:** Oh my God, what's this? Philyra912 posting a story? Surely you jest! But no, here I am after a nearly year long absence. Some very serious and sad things happened in Real Life that took me away from fanfiction and even writing in general for a very long time. I am back now (although with no promises that I will be a consistent and timely updater), and am glad to be.

The following story may be a bit hard to follow, hard to understand, and perhaps not even very pleasant to read. However, it was an extraordinary exercise in form for me. I wrote 5 drabbles of precisely 100 words apiece (if you've never written a drabble, you have NO idea how hard it is to get a story across in 100 words!). They are the stories of some of my favorite characters on the night before the Final battle. They are all contemplating the same question. The question, however, is ambiguous to the very last line of the last drabble, so see if you can figure out what it is.

I hope you enjoy, darlings!

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_Ron and Hermione's Story: The Dove_

After she asked it, he was silent for a while.

She had never seemed smaller to him than she did then. Beneath his hand, her bones felt as thin and fragile as a bird's, and in his mind's eye he saw her flying away from this war, a dove rising from the smoke and fire of a battlefield.

"Of course," he answered, pressing his lips to her bushy hair. "Otherwise, I might not be sitting here on this couch. With you."

And when she began to cry, he kissed the tears away. He thought she tasted like flight, and like peace.


	2. Tonks and Lupin's Story: The Photograph

-1_Tonks and Lupin's Story: The Photograph_

She found him in the bedroom, looking at His photograph.

She told him that she missed Him, too, and because he loved her, he didn't tell her that she couldn't know what it was like to miss Him the way he did, like missing a limb.

She asked him the question. His answer was "no," but he didn't tell her that.

She led him to the bed, asked what he wanted.

What he wanted was for tomorrow to come, so that he could see Sirius and hear Heaven ring with His laughter.

But he didn't tell her that, either.


	3. Molly and Arthur's Story: The Clock

-1_Molly and Arthur's_ _Story: The Clock_

He asked it as she was setting his tea on the table, and although the cup and saucer rattled, they didn't fall.

As she sat down, she glanced at the clock she had so cherished for so long. She looked at each shining name on its face, pictured each precious child.

"Our children knew peace, for however brief a time," she announced finally. "If their children can know it too . . . then the answer is yes."

She looked at the clock, where every hand pointed at "Mortal Peril," felt his hand grip hers with its eternal strength, and sipped her tea.


	4. Malfoy and Snape's Story: The Truth

-1_Malfoy and Snape's Story: The Truth_

When he'd asked it, he hadn't expected an answer.

"No?" he echoed dumbly.

"No," Snape repeated firmly, his obsidian eyes reflecting the fire beneath the cauldron he tended. His voice suddenly melted back into the cutting, silky tones Malfoy remembered from school, from Before. 'Before' was always capitalized in his mind, like War, like Duty.

"Was that not what you wanted to hear?"

"Was it the truth?" 

"Yes."

"Then no, I don't suppose it was."

The rusty sound of Severus Snape's laughter was not what Malfoy had expected the end of the world to sound like, but it would do.


	5. Harry's Story: The Stars

-1_Harry's Story: The Stars_

No one was there to ask Harry the question, so he asked it of the stars.

They were silent, but he was glad. He'd had so little silence in his short life. If it was not the Dursleys' shouting, it was his friends' laughter, or the clicking of _Daily_ _Prophet_ cameras, or the accusatory murmurs of his mercurial schoolmates, or the whispered words of powerful men.

In the last hours of the world, Harry soaked up enough silence for a lifetime.

As dawn broke, he answered his own question.

"Yes," he said quietly but firmly. "Yes, it was worth it."

**... fin ...**

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**A/N:** Ok kids, that's it! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! I live on them, and I really want to know what you think about my drabble-writing capabilities!


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